BALTICA Volume 24 Number 2 December 2011 : 117–122
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BALTICA Volume 24 Number 2 December 2011 : 117–122 Obituary Farewell to Professor Aleksis Dreimanis (1914-2011) Aleksis one could agree or disagree – and still be good friends. He was a noble man and true scholar. His ent- husiasm, energy and diplomacy were well combined with multi–lingual knowledge, so rare in the scientific community nowadays. Aleksis Dreimanis was born into a family of tea- chers on August 13, 1914, in Valmiera, Latvia. Because of evacuation of the Rīga Alexander High School which was his father’s workplace to Saransk, in the middle part of the European Russia during World War I, Aleksis spent three years of his childhood in Saransk where he learned Russian writing and reading. The family came back to Latvia in 1920. After graduation from the Rīga First High School he started studies in the Department of Natural Science at the Mathema- tics and Science Faculty of the University of Latvia. In 1938 he finished his studies with Magister rerum naturalium degree in geology. He published his first scientific paper at the age Aleksis Dreimanis. of 21 in 1935, as a third year student. This paper was Photo by V. Zelčs, 2003. the first Latvian publication on glaciotectonics and one of the first studies in the world where glaciotec- tonic deformations were combined with stratigraphy. Aleksis Dreimanis passed into eternity at University Therefore Aleksis Dreimanis was probably the first Hospital, London Ontario on Friday morning, July 8, who distinguished kinetostratigraphic units in glacial 2011, sinking into deep sleep a day after undergoing surgery, little more than a month before his 97th stratigraphy even before Asger Berthelsen (1973) had birthday. The news of his passing seems unacceptable. proposed the idea of kinetostratigraphy. In 1939, he Aleksis was always able to change with the times, and published a method for lithologic investigation of in contact with him one tended to forget how long has the 0.5–1.0 mm fraction of tills for stratigraphical been his life’s journey. He always generously shared his purposes, later known in the Soviet literature as The knowledge and experience, and spoiled us all through Method of Dreimanis. He completed his habilitation his humane goodness, his honesty, and his loyalty. degree in 1942. Aleksis Dreimanis, born and grown up in Latvia, In his thirties Dreimanis was a classical naturalist, belongs to the Quaternary community of the world, a good combination of past and present, being at being one of its leaders whose ideas have been inclu- the same time geologist, botanist, malacologist and ded in numerous textbooks. Much can be said about archaeologist, a true Linnean scholar and true “Qua- his scientific career, but still more about his persona- ternarist”, able to do palynological analyses himself. lity. Even during the hard days of World War II and Unfortunately, most of his pollen diagrams were lost Soviet occupation, he stayed optimistic and was sure during wartime. Dreimanis was the first who found that one day Latvia will be free from totalitarianism. conclusive evidences for three Pleistocene glaciations His optimism and passion have inspired not only his in Latvia (1943). He was also in charge of Quaternary students but also his colleagues of different genera- mapping of western and central Latvia, and completed tions. Scientific sharpness and detailed field studies, the first detailed map sheet in a scale of 1:25 000. In supplemented by laboratory analyses, have always his well–known till studies Dreimanis has always used been in the focus of all his scientific conclusions. With multiple criteria (lithology, mineralogy, till fabric, 117 glacial tectonics, chemistry, grain-size, etc.) which he Peribaltic scientists as leaders of the work groups. put into practice already in his first student competition Most of the meetings organized by him have been of project. Already in his young years he was invited to great importance for the development of international solve litostratigraphic problems even abroad. In Esto- projects and concepts. Due to his effective and enthu- nia he established clear differences in the fine gravel siastic leadership on the Commission and the INQUA fraction between upper and lower tills in the interglacial Working Group on tills he carried the nickname ‘Dr. sections at Rõngu and Karuküla. Later, as a professor Till’. Over the last two decades he has participated at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, he saw in many meetings and field symposia of the INQUA similar sections in the bluffs of lakes Erie and Ontario Peribaltic Regional Working Group, and during the and developed the well–known classical stratigraphic field symposium in 1998 he demonstrated in sections schemes of the last glaciation in the Great Lakes region of the Daugava River Bluffs how complicated three– of Northern America. dimensional kineto–architectural constructions could As a reserve officer, Dreimanis was drafted to the assist in the determination of ice movement. Latvian Legion during the German occupation in the When Latvia regained independence, he resumed participation in Pleistocene research in Latvia, writing Second World War. He was assigned to be a military together with local geologists several overview papers geologist and was sent to Germany to join the geologi- and reports (Āboltiņš, Dreimanis 1995; Dreimanis, cal unit. He journeyed to Northern Italy to do mapping Zelčs 1995; Zelčs, Dreimanis 1997; a. o.) including the geology of the River Po region. He became a prisoner Latvian chapter to the Encyclopedia of European and of war in Italy, but after 18 months he was reunited Asian Regional Geology (Dreimanis, Kārkliņš 1997). with his family in a refugee camp in Germany. During Latvian–English–German geologic terminology was 1946–1948 he was teaching at the Baltic University for published by Dreimanis and Kārkliņš (1986) in the Dic- Displaced Persons camps in Hamburg and Pinneberg tionary of Latvian Technical Terminology and related in Germany. glacigenic terms in Latvian and 20 other languages in In 1948, Dreimanis immigrated to Canada to assume the Appendix C of Dreimanis (1989). a lecturer position at the University of Western Ontario For his brilliant work Aleksis Dreimanis has recei- in London. The university promoted him to Associate ved many awards. He was elected Foreign Member Professor in 1956, then to Professor in 1964. In 1980 of Latvian Academy of Sciences (1990) and received the university made him an Emeritus Professor. Since honorary doctorates at the University of Waterloo 1948 up to the present, he has done much for the study (1969), the University of Western Ontario (1980), and of the Quaternary geology of his second homeland, the University of Latvia (1991). He became honorary Canada, teaching hundreds of young geologists and member of the Geographical Society of Latvia (1990), geographers. He has supervised 28 graduate students the Association of Geologists of Latvia (1991), and the and 15 postdoctoral fellows, produced more than 200 Latvian Association for Quaternary Research (1998), a publications in a wide range of topics, most recently Distinguished Fellow of the Geological Association of in 2009 at age 95. Several Canadian institutions called Canada (1995), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada on him for his Quaternary expertise, including the (1979), and Honorary Member of INQUA (1985). He Geological Survey of Canada, the Ontario Department received the University of Helsinki Medal (1990), of Mines, and the Ontario Department of Planning and Logan`s Medal (Geological Association of Canada), Development for the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority, Albrecht Penck Medal (DEUQUA), W. A. Johnston the Thames River Conservation Authority and various Medal (CANQUA). He was most proud of being the private companies. recipient of the highest award of Latvia, the Three Star It is not easy to find out which is the most important Order in 2003. topic in his long–term studies, but probably it is the till We know that many his new ideas and numerous not genesis and classification, establishment of quantitative yet finished papers have stayed on his work table. His relationship between the bedrock and till lithology that scientific career has spanned 75 years but we believe allowed him to find out the details of till formation and that his legacy will live much longer and will give to develop the Quaternary stratigraphic and climatic inspiration for further findings in Quaternary science. record of the Great Lakes region. In 2010 Canadian Quaternary Association (CANQUA) Professor Dreimanis became world–renowned has created a new doctoral scholarship in honour of through the INQUA Commission on Genesis and Aleksis Dreimanis to be awarded biennially starting in Lithology of Glacial Deposits, which among the speci- 2011. His name is already included in many encyclo- alists was known better as The Commission of Aleksis. paedias together with names of the world’s foremost He invited representatives from 32 countries to work at Earth scientists. the Commission. Being aware of the advanced studies of glacial deposits in the Baltic Region, he appointed Vitālijs Zelčs (Rīga) and Anto Raukas (Tallinn) 118 ADDENDUM Fenton, M.M., Dreimanis, A., 1976. Methods of stratigrap- Publications of Professor Aleksis Dreimanis hic correlation of till in central and western Canada. In Leggett, R.F. (ed.), Glacial Till. The Royal Society of Papers in monographs, conference proceedings Canada. Special Publication, 12. Ottawa, 67–82. and special issues1 May, R.W., Dreimanis, A., 1976. Compositional variability in tills. In Legget, R.F. (ed.), Glacial Till. The Royal Society of Canada Special Publication, 12. Ottawa, Dreimanis, A., 1960. Pre–classical Wisconsin in the eastern 99–119. portion of the Great Lakes region, North America. In Evenson, E.B., Dreimanis, A., 1976. Late glacial (14,000- J. Iversen, E. Hyyppä, S. Thorarinsson (eds), Chronology 10,000 years BP) history of the Great Lakes Region and and Climatology of the Quaternary, 21st International possible correlations.